I’d like to voice one of my concerns with the upcoming arena system as it pertains to my lock. My understanding is that the arena system is a lot more focused on winning as opposed to just farming as it is now. As a result people are going to throw every cooldown and ability (under 15 minutes if I’m to understand correctly) they have into the fight.

Warlocks currently are a *very* powerful dueling class, simply because there is so much that they can do to stack a match ahead of time (such as picking the right pet for the fight), all at the cost of soul shards. I know for myself, that in desire to win, I’m going to be doing everything I possibly can to bias matches in my favor and I don’t believe I’m alone in this. I’ve seen videos of server 2 on 2 tournaments where people would use everything they could including flasks and arcane bombs to achieve victory. I think the decision to disallow consumables was a brilliant decision simply because of this reason.

From a warlock and balance perspective, I’m just worried that I’m going to be stuck farming up to 5-9 shards for every single match. (2 Healthstones, 1 Spellstone (for at least 2/3rds the matchs), 1 Pet (if Fel Domination isn’t allowed and another 1 if it is), Soulfire if CC can buy the time, a Shadowburn every 15 seconds if I’m not saving it for a spike.) See… if people *can* do it, then they will. And if people *are* doing it, then Blizzard is going to have to balance around it otherwise they will face a situation with locks taking up a very disproportionate amount of top arena teams. I can see a couple ways of doing this, either nerfing locks so that even with all their shard use they are on par with other classes, or making it so there isn’t time to summon that much stuff prior to a match but leaving walocks gimped without the use of quite a few of their abilities, or cutting out the cost of shards in an arena but lowering the power of those abilities. Either way I’m not liking the choices I see.

Yes, I know rogues face something similar with Fadeleaf.

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Personally, my suggestion would be to make it so that instead of competing against *everyone* on a ladder, you are only competing on separate ladders against other members of the same side and class. If Paladins become the bomb in 2 on 2 pvp and tend to win a disproportionate amount of matches, its ok because as a gimped warrior (just picked a name, not saying it’s the case) you would only be competing against other teams that have the same ‘handicap’. Is it an optimal solution… probably not, but it does adjust some for inevitable class imbalances that are going to happen. I’d still be farming shards, but at least I get something out of the deal (the fake pride in winning more and the ability to use a lot of my abilities, even if I’m still on the same place on a ladder relative to my skill). Even though I'm writing this a lock's perspective the same thing can be said of other classes that become more / less powerful then average based on what the standard teams become.

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I’m sure there are a lot of problems with this, mostly the fact that it doesn’t include the relative power of your partner into the equation so Class X Player A teamed with Class Uber would be higher on average then Class X Player B teamed with Class Gimp. Is complete class balance the best choice? Obviously. However in a game this complex that’s impossible to do completely.

Any thoughts?

I think the soulshard system was a nice gimmick,but fell on its face and needs to be retired. The arena system is going to suck for warlocks because were going to have to farm for a half hour every 4-5 matches. Fadeleaf can be bought,Soul shards cannot. Same with candles,thorns etc.

We are a powerful duelling class yes,but 2v2 will be lightyears in difference then a duel. it will be pvp. I get rocked in duel's versus soulink warlocks,in pvp where i can have range on them i destroy them to a massive degree. Throw a healer into the mix and it can go either way.

All your conclusion will do is promote class inbalances and skewed matches and allow subpar players to stick with one strat and ram it through never have to adapt or get some skill because their never matched against tough opponents or match ups. Ie it will again become a honour farming situation. If your unwilling to farm to allow for massive shard use,you probably dont belong in the arena.

There has been a 'lock ability leaked in the giant FoH post that summons a soulwell every hour. Until any information to the contrary, it may be logical to assume that it functions pretty much exactly how it sounds.

It may also be logical to assume that any speculation on TBC arena matchups based on non-TBC mechanics is, in fact, illogical.

Not really related to soul shards but more to arena balance. Just read this from official forums:

Drysc:
The match making of the areans interest me, I thought they were going down the Warcraft 3 model with matches based on the ranking of the group at least for the areanas, but for battlegrounds is there there is some sort of assesment of items involved?. Raises some obvious questions:

- What do you base it on? iLvl?
- Is it useing an addition, average, median method?
- Does backpack or bank count?
- Would it use average across the group/raid?

Seems like it leaves a lot more room for exploits, and I'm hoping the match making is based on the pure rankings method. Answers/opinions?

I think a clever system would be where the lock is given X number of soul shards per battle, and maybe can get more via killing the enemy but overall is fairly limited. If you had to start a fight with 3 soul shards, would you spend one on a spell stone? or a health stone? save it for the shadowburn killing blows for that final burst?

It seems a lot more tactical to me, but then of course the technical limitations of bag space are going to be a nightmare.

The same Soulwell that's featured on the WoW.com talents/skills preview for TBC? Raid members can click the Soul Well to obtain Healthstones, not Soul Shards.


Edit: VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV Oops, my bad.

ignore

The idea of a certain amount of soulshards per arena game sounds extremely nice, I think a decent limit (Considering the apparant length of matches) would be around 20, which would allow for a decent amount of healthstones, Shadow Burns, and Pet Summoning.

If they however expect us to grind in between every few games in order to attain soul shards, at least put fucking mobs with a high level near the arena entrances so I don't have to travel some place and spend 15 minutes farming so I can use my class to it's full potentntial.

As for Warlock balance in the arenas, there are now MS / Deathwish Warriors, so there are bigger problems for Blizzard to face :P

Since every city now have direct acces to the capital in outlands i doubth that you will have to travel farther than 5 minutes in order to farm.

You have the most powerful pvp class in the game and you're complaining about farming...

We're also the only class in the game that is forced to farm in order to operate to it's max potential, where as the others can just buy whatever they need to operate to their max potential (I know you need money, but that can be attained without having to go out of your way and earn it :P)

Unless there's some way to reset cooldowns after an arena match, there will be 10-15 minutes of downtime between each match anyways. Presumably it will be possible to get soul shards immediately outside a BC city, so farming them isn't that bad.

Soul shards are still an annoying mechanic. I'm always amused when our warlocks farm WSG PUGs for their shards. I hope that there's an improvement to their overall use, even something as silly as purchasable from a vendor for a cheap price.

How many matches will the top ranked teams play per week, 20?

Entirely dependant on the average length of a match and their opponents if you understand me :P Some teams may be able to just bulldoze through certain teams pretty much all day due to the gear advantage (depends on how the system makes the matches (rank / ilvl of items)) or class advantage.

There is of course the fact that there will be guilds / teams just set up for the arena, as Blizzard have said they will keep the gear updated to be equal or close to that which will be attainable from the current end game instance, so I doubt that there will be any problem finding people to play providing the matchmaking system it utilizes isn't too exact.

As for an estimate from myself, it's impossible to tell at this moment in time, I just remember while I was honor farming I could get through around 150-190 games a day providing we didn't come up against any actual teams, which would of course make the whole thing a lot more tedious.

My point is basically that quality counts, in an ELO system, not quantity. It'll be interesting to see how many fights people end up with, but I don't think farming shards will be a big challenge with regards to the arena system.

The current, annouced minimum is 10 matches. There's also a requirement that alts on the team play a certain percentage of your teams's matchups for the week (either 30 or 40%).

It doesn't change that shards are still a lousy mechanic for PvP, especially open-field PvP that should be happening in the expansion. In PvE, the limitation on soul shards makes some sense. But in PvP it's an annoyance that doesn't need to exist.

cooldowns above 10 minutes are disabled in the arena, from what i understand.

Above 15 minutes I thought. Anyhow, point remains that games won't be played back to back as that would reduce your chance of winning.

Cooldowns>(=?)15 minutes aren't allowed.

The CMs have released some information, Drysc said that the matching system will scan your bags and bank for the gear's ilevel. I guess you could sell your items to bypass it, then rebuy them when you get the invite. However, the scanning system could be changed to scan that too.

Average gear ilevel for the group is the simplest method, so it is likely what will be used.

It has been said 15 minute cooldowns are fine, but anything longer is not okay.

Oh god I hope not. This is gonna introduce a whole new world of twinks. Level 70s wearing low ilvl gear across the board, perhaps with a very strong weapon with a powerful enchant. They should just keep it simple and match people solely on their record.